Woman Survives Stab to head, hands severed in machete attack only to find out she has cancer

A woman was savagely knifed in a machete attack which left both her hands severed before he stabbed her in the head with the 18-inch blade.

Battling Maria Del Carmen Gomez was attacked by an ex-boyfriend who slashed both her hands almost clean off before stabbing her in the head with an 18-inch blade.

The 53-year-old, who underwent life-saving surgery as medics frantically rushed to reattach her hands, made a remarkable recovery from the brutal attack.

But now she has been given the crushing news that she also has cancer.

Battling: Gomez, right, will undergo chemotherapy for metastatic uterine cancer, months after the attack which saw her knifed in the head and arms

Horrific: Surgeons carried out a painstaking five-hour operation on Gomez's hands after she was slashed outside a convenience store in Vegas five months ago

Mrs Gomez, who still has heavy bandaging on her hands and scars on her head, was recently told she has metastatic uterine cancer.

She endured a five-hour surgical procedure to remove her uterus and ovaries as experts cut out the cancer from her colon, diaphragm and lymph nodes.

Medics found that the machete victim had a malignant disease at an 'advanced stage' but was curable. They plan to give her chemotherapy treatment and are hopeful she will recover.

Her new ordeal comes just months after she was horrifically knifed outside a convenience store in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 21.

 

Her attacker was said to be Gomez's ex-boyfriend, Armando Vergara-Martinez, who stabbed her before slashing his own neck.

Martinez, 49, was saved my medics, but faces trial in October on charges including attempted murder and domestic violence.

Doctors said that Gomez could have been decapitated if her attacker had aimed a couple of inches lower.

Medics also praised her remarkable resilience in battling through the machete attack recovery and now refusing to be beaten by cancer.

Dr. Nick Spirtos, the gynecologist who headed the cancer surgical team, told the Las Vegas Review Joual: 'If anybody can make it, she can. She was remarkably positive going into surgery.

'She showed me the scars on her head and her hands from the machete and said, 'This cancer isn't going to get me either.' She has an incredible spirit.'

Medical staff who reattached Gomez's hands after the machete attack believe she was covering her head with them when she was knifed.

Dr. Albert Capanna, a neurologist who helped carry out the painstaking operation, said: 'If he had come down another inch with his blows, he would have cut her head right off.'

Speaking a month after the attack, Gomez told how she lost consciousness after being stabbed in the head.

She told CBS earlier this year: 'I tried to open my car. He started hitting me without saying [anything].

'He stabbed me two, three times on my head. I felt such strong hits over there.

'He cut these three fingers and left it on the floor.'

Brutal: Gomez was also savagely knifed in the back of the head during the frenzied attack earlier this year

Savage: Surgeons managed to reattach Gomez's hands in an operation, after the attack severed both at the wrist

She has since said she has no idea why she was attacked. Two years ago she had already reported Martinez to police for attacking her.

He spent 41 days in jail no a misdemeanour strangulation charge.

Gomez added: 'I never went back to him, but I did speak to him on the phone.

'And then one day he said he needed help getting recommendations for a job. I told him to come by the store on the night the attack happened.'